- Cultivation of Graft- Land. Soiling Superiority of. 



The practice of foiling has alfo been oppofed, on the ground that the animals de 

 -not thrive fo \veli as when grazed in thepaftures. But when it is confidered that 

 the more quiet and free from diflurbance cattle are kept, the better they in 

 general thrive and improve in their flefh, it is not probable that green food, when 

 properly confirmed in the fheds of a farm-yard, will be lefs advantageous in pro 

 moting the growth and fattening of flock than when eaten in the field, where ex- 

 pofed to i he great heat and the conftant attacks of flies, and of courfe kept in a 

 continual fhite of reftleffnefs and inquietude. Befides, in the experiments noticed 

 above,the cattle were found to go on better than flock of the fame kind fed in the 

 part u res in the moft favourable feafons for the purpofe of grazing. And in many 

 trials, carefully made by Mr. Young, and detailed in the Annals of Agriculture,the 

 refults were the fame. The fuppofitioa of the cattle not thriving fo well under this 

 fyftem does not therefore appear to be well fupported by facts, or to have had any 

 foundation in the experience of farmers. 



The fuperiority of the foiling method in refpect to the economical confumption 

 of the food cannot be difputed. In various experiments that have been made in 

 proof of the great faving in this way, it has been found to go from twice to four 

 or five times as far as when fed on the land; and in fome trials it has been a great 

 deal more. With grafs, clover, lucern, and tares, in the trials of an able cultiva- 

 tor, three times as many cattle were found capable of being fupported in better 

 condition than in the pafture mode of feeding,* But in thofe of other experimen 

 ters it has been fhown to be equal to five, fix, or even more times, as we have al 

 ready feen in fpeaking of clover. In the field, it is obvious that great wafte mufl 

 be committed by the grafs being trampled down, dunged upon, and in many other 

 \vays,efpecially where a great number of cattle are paftured together, mod of which 

 are avoided in the flail method : but it has been remarked that it is &quot; an error 

 to fuppofe that all the wafleis in feeding in the field and none in the flails r there 

 is on the contrary a wafte in foiling,&quot; as in cafes where the tares become podded, 

 from the butt ends of the plants being coarfe and in a ftate of decay, by lying on 

 the ground, and of courfe rejected by the animals : the fame thing alfo occurs with 

 lucern when in bloflbm. In the heating, of the food by its remaining heaped to 

 gether, lofs may likewife be fuftained.f Proper management inrefpcct to the 

 crops and the manner of employing them, as \ve lhall fee below, will, however, 

 in a great meafure, prevent wafte in this method. 



* Ck&amp;gt;fe iiv Communications to the Board, -vol. III. f Annals of Agriculture, vol. XIV. 



